On November 21st, the Hankyu Umeda Main Branch, which had been undergoing expansion and renovation, held its grand opening. The renovation and reopening was a two-phase process, with a section of the second phase building opening on October 25th ahead of the grand opening.

With this expansion, the sales floor area of the Hankyu Umeda Main Branch is now 80,000 square meters, and the first-year sales target, including the adjacent Hankyu Men's Building, is expected to be 213 billion yen. With sales at the Hankyu Men's Building estimated at around 20 billion yen, the Umeda Main Branch alone is expected to achieve around 190 billion yen.

The highlight of the new Umeda Main Branch, which bills itself as a "theater-style department store," is the ample space it uses to create, with ample relaxation areas, such as the 2,000 square meter "Festival Plaza" on the 9th floor, and various measures designed to increase customer retention. Some point out that the total area of all non-merchandise spaces, including rest areas, amounts to 16,000 square meters, accounting for just under 20% of the total sales floor space. Furthermore, the "Sesse" section, a craft goods section that had been closed during the expansion, has been reinstated in the "Umeda Souq" on the 10th floor. Surrounding it are a collection of small designer brands, artist brands, and directly managed stores of raw material manufacturers, which previously had been unable to open in department stores. Due to the high costs of rent and employee hiring, opening a store in a department store has traditionally been limited to large and mid-sized brands with strong corporate resources. This has contributed to the homogenization of department stores. While it has been said that this is essential to introduce rare brands, such as small designers and artist brands, no department store has been able to do so. The uniqueness of Hankyu Umeda Department Store lies in its focus on this area.

The advance opening on October 25th saw 200,000 visitors on the first day, and by the time of the grand opening, the total number of visitors had reached 4 million, demonstrating the high level of interest.